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As US President Barack Obama's recent comments on marijuana reignite the liberalization debate across the world, including in Kyrgyzstan, a Kyrgyz scholar offers a non-mainstream explanation for the decriminalization of marijuana in a number of countries. In a blog post on kloop.kg, Dr. Rustam Tukhvatshin claims [ru] that legalization helps governments control protest movements:

…People's addiction to [marijuana] is very convenient to politicians because the addicted individuals will never criticize them. Such people will view any policy decision made by politicians through a marijuana smoke screen, joyfully and complacently.

Most often individuals [addicted to the drug] belong to the discontented strata, and the legalization of marijuana renders these strata [unimportant]. Unfortunately, people who use marijuana are only a step away from experimenting with stronger drugs such as heroin and LSD. This then enables the authorities to put such individuals on record and take measures against them, while society at large will never defend drug addicts. These are, in my opinion, the main reasons for decriminalizing marijuana…

I don’t quite get the idea, mainly as an Argentinian living next to Uruguay and sharing the language, and sharing a history of us seeded and financed dictatorships, later evolved into neoliberal so-called democracies, we were always told that drugs represented a threat and then a need for strong policies adhering us treaties, DEA agents and a gross slice of our national budget. Also, relating pot consumption with heroin sounds like a DEA handbook. Of course, those in power at the moment of turning such a historical trend will attempt to obtain benefits, but again, isn’t that the way politicians work? I think we are leaving aside two things: what about people’s request and what about pot specifically, I mean, we are not discussing alcohol nor tobacco -which have been proved dangerous for human health.